


stars space stars

by yoonbot (iverins)



Category: Day6 (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-Break Up, mentions of Day6 members, mentions of TWICE members
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 17:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17268158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iverins/pseuds/yoonbot
Summary: There are few things more awkward than running into your ex at an awards ceremony when you're nominated for Song of the Year, and, whether they know it or not, that song's about them.





	stars space stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kagamiwa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kagamiwa/gifts).



> **dearest yun ♡**
> 
> at this point it must be obvious that i was the one who wrote your fic!! i know we said we didn't have to adhere by prompts and i know i said that i was too old to write sadder things but #newyearnewme!! just kidding, but i did get inspired by this prompt you left and had a lot of ideas (that sadly got cut for time constraints booooo)! thank you for being such a lovely friend throughout the years and an essential member of #teamprocrastinators #teamlastminute ♡♡♡ i hope 2019 brings you only the best!!!
> 
> and to the rest of #teamprocrastinators: my favorite stories about this exchange will be 1) we convinced hannah out of retirement 1 hour after she declared it, 2) i knew i was the worst procrastinator out of us all, and 3) i feel like a true winner because i get all this new and awesome brianayeon content!!! i love you all and may 2019 be bright for all of us ♡♡♡♡♡
> 
> **this work is purely fictional.**   
>  the title is meant to be a pictorial phrase, read as: _the space between two stars_

In a parallel universe, Brian does not run into Nayeon coming out of the restroom backstage, catching her shoulders before she barrels right into him. In this same parallel universe, Brian shouldn't be lost backstage to begin with, either, but this is his first rodeo at an awards show, and he has to ask Nayeon for the directions back to his seat.

"You look good," Nayeon offers him with a small smile once Brian's retracted his hands back to himself. She looks down at her shoes – these dainty little black heels with dainty little black bows on the front. They're so Nayeon, along with the brief moment their eyes meet before she nervously flits her focus to his ear, and the stilted silence between them, first cracked by her words. She shifts her weight on those shoes, arms wrapped around herself. "I hope you guys win, by the way."

Brian blinks. In a different parallel universe, they wouldn't be having this conversation at all. Brian wouldn't be here, and neither would Sungjin, Jae, Wonpil, or Dowoon, and the song he'd written to propel them to five weeks at number one wouldn't be blasting through the speakers in the stadium above them. "Oh," he says. "Thanks."

"It's a good song," Nayeon tells him, earnestly, because that's also so Nayeon. She tucks her hair behind her ear. "Real 'Song of the Year' material." And in that different parallel universe, Brian wouldn't still think she's the most beautiful girl in the world as she does it. Brian shouldn't still be in love with her.

Brian digs his hands further into his pockets, as if it'll stop him from saying what he's wanted to tell her over the phone since the song was released and he was drunk one times too many at three in the morning. That was one of their problems, Brian remembers. Stopping themselves before they could fall head-first into something they'd thought was bigger than the both of them – bigger than the both of them and their respective groups – but in hindsight, the deep end had only been a puddle. As if on cue, his disembodied voice comes through in the stadium, carrying over the bass he can feel vibrate in his fingertips:

_Do you know this song's about you? 'Cuz I could write the break-up song of the century and still not be over you._

When he looks up, Nayeon's looking at him now, truly looking at him like she hasn't in a long while, head-on. "Good luck to the both of us," Brian says, instead, before smiling a close-lipped smile.

 

 

 

 

_DISPATCH: SPECIAL VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH DAY6'S YOUNG K, LYRICIST OF POSSIBLE SONG OF THE YEAR_

Q: You've been nominated for the highest honor at many award shows this year. How does it feel?

Young K: _(laughs)_ It's a really good feeling, to know that one of the songs you've worked on has touched so many people. I'm very happy about it! So are the rest of the members. We still feel like we're dreaming.

Q: Ah, let me read some comments that fans have left about this song. _'Who hurt Younghyun again? ㅠㅠ'_ and _'Oppa, this song is so sad too...'_. Do you get comments like this often?

Young K: They're similar with every album. I think because every album has to have a song like this... That kind of sad feeling? But it's good because everyone has felt something like this, right? This kind of sad break-up. _(smiling)_ Please don't worry, I don't write these songs every time I get hurt!

Q: I see. So you take inspirations from other places and other members, too?

Young K: Yes, that's right. The members also contribute to make the melodies and we compose the music together.

Q: Day6 debuted in 2015 and have been creating their own songs since then. And all your music has been very good, but what do you think it is about this song that it became so popular?

Young K: I think... _(shifts in his seat)_ This song is special. There's something very raw about the emotions in it. I think when you just listen to it, you get transported back to a time when you were really, really in love with someone and you just broke up.

Q: _(Interviewer looks off the paper)_ And was this song inspired by one of your break ups?

Young K: _(with a laugh that doesn't quite reach his eyes)_ I don't think my company will let me answer that.

 

 

 

 

The thing is: they end things mutually. It's a quiet affair, all things considered, when Nayeon made Brian sing her five Bruno Mars songs outside the dance studio Twice was practicing in before he heard Jeongyeon scream on the other side, "Nayeon, please, if I have to hear 'Just The Way You Are' _one more time,_ " and then she'd been pushed outside, blushing, before reaching out in what felt like slow motion to hold his hand.

"How was I supposed to know that you were serious?" Nayeon frowned, squinting at him when he'd brought it up a couple months later, laughing. "You flirt with, like. _Everyone._ "

Brian poked her in the side at that, grinning. "No, I don't," he insisted. "Only with you." Nayeon reached out to tickle him in retaliation, and they'd rolled over the floor of Day6's living room, fighting like that until Jae, who'd walked out of his room to go to the kitchen, saw them and said, _Keep it PG, you disgusting lovebirds!_

And there was the time Nayeon drowsily stumbled into Day6's studio at five in the morning, using Brian's side as a pillow as he was trying to finish writing lyrics. "Tell me," she'd started, lips pressed against his hoodie. And through it, Brian could feel her words vibrating on his skin. "Why do you like me?"

Brian put his pencil down before looking down at her. "Because you're Im Nayeon."

She punched him in the shoulder, weakly. "What does that mean?" she sniffed. Twice had been preparing for a comeback then, their second of the year, and Brian had learned that a stressed Nayeon was also a self-doubting and easily-moved-to-tears Nayeon. "You can't just say that. That's not a reason."

"Why not?" he laughed lightly. Nayeon punched him again, grumbling. "Okay, okay. I like you because..."

Nayeon's got a kind heart. Sometimes, with the smokescreen of her jokingly-mean remarks in the way, people could forget about that. But Nayeon loves cautiously at the start, eventually full-heartedly, and it's why she still walks Brian back to his seat at that awards show instead of running the other way, why she wishes him luck one last time with a pretty smile before walking back to join the rest of Twice.

Nayeon's the clingy type. Which Brian shouldn't like but he does – he likes her hand in his when they can hold them, her arms moving to wrap around his waist, tentatively at first, then unashamedly as time goes by, the way she stops herself from telling him she misses him because _I know we're both busy, and this is selfish of me to say but..._ And maybe it helps that Brian falls in love like a meteor heading toward Earth, thirty kilometers per second, so intensely and completely that one day they're out late at night, staring at the sliver of city lights through the cut-out of buildings atop a small hill, and he covers Nayeon's eyes with his hands.

"Don't love me too much," he laughs like it's a joke. He props his arms on her shoulders.

"Hmm?" she hums after pretending to attempt to flip him over her back. "Why not?"

"Because," Brian says, quieter this time. Nayeon feels small in his arms, and this moment is so perfect that he never wants to let go of it. "Then you won't be able to feel a love like this for anyone else."

Nayeon turns around, peeling his hands away from where they'd been covering her eyes. There's a seriousness in the way she's set her mouth, and then a seriousness in the way she tugs the front of his jacket so that he can lean down and kiss her.

And Nayeon's always been a better idol than him. The better trainee back when they'd first met, even if she couldn't reach that high note during vocal lessons, or missed a dance step, or cried in the practice room when she thought it was already empty about her large two front teeth – there was something you couldn't help but love about Nayeon through those imperfections. And that's why one day she texts him after they have a company meeting about some article Dispatch's got on them:

_do you think we should end things_

No question mark, no pretext. And Brian texts back:

_Okay._

 

 

 

 

Another thing: that's not really the end. Because a month later, Nayeon calls him at four in the morning and, apropos of nothing, tells him, "I am still in love with you."

"I am, too," Brian whispers back, clutching his phone tighter in his hand. "I am, too."

On and off, for the next half-year, they go back and forth like this. Day6 releases an album, and a picture of the title track is uploaded on Twice's instagram ("My doing!" Nayeon tells him, hip-checking Jihyo out of the way in front of their studio). Nayeon dyes her hair a brighter brown and doesn't change it back to black right away for once.

"I like it," he tells her as they're eating late-night snacks on the dance room floor a week before her comeback. And it's almost like they're trainees again, except younger Brian was always chasing after older people, and Nayeon had eyes for this guy who'd left before he debuted.

She kicks him with her sock-covered foot. There's a Line character printed on it. "You're only saying that because you love me too much," she huffs. "And you're too biased to give an outside opinion."

Brian laughs at that. "And you don't like that?" he teases. "You don't want your boyfriend to love you no matter what?"

Nayeon kicks him again. "Yah!" but she's laughing, too. "What are you trying to say?" And then it turns into an all-out war until she's leaning over him, the ends of her brightly-colored hair tickling his neck. When she presses her mouth against his, her lips taste like shrimp crackers.

Twice has two comebacks in a row. "Are you still there?" Nayeon mumbles to him through the phone after she's done with her schedules for the day, at three in the morning.

"Mmm," he hums back. They both fall asleep, still on the line.

And one day when Nayeon finally doesn't have a schedule, she's lying on Brian's bed playing a game on her phone while he's on the floor with his headphones, writing lyrics. "You'll write a song about me, right?" she asks him, sitting up suddenly.

Brian pretends he didn't hear her. "What'd you say?" he says. The smile tugging at the corners of his mouth betrays him.

Nayeon smiles back but doesn't retaliate. "You'll write a song about me, right?" she repeats patiently, starting to chew her lip.

And sometimes, Brian forgets that Nayeon needs the constant reminder that she's loved, that – despite her shows of it – sometimes Nayeon doesn't love herself enough alone. So Brian takes off his headphones, sets them on top of his notebook, and stands up to sit on his bed beside her.

"Of course," he promises. He kisses her on the side of her mouth. "How can I not write a song about you?"

And there's four months ago, and Brian can't remember exactly why they started arguing but Nayeon's got her arms crossed against her chest and she's shrinking in on herself.

"Do you want to get caught again?" she's telling him. "Do you want to go talk to management again and have to explain that we're not dating when we are? I don't know, I'm," Nayeon gestures with her hands, trapped inside her sleeves, too far from his to hold, " _tired of this,_ Brian."

"Tired of what?" he snaps back. "Of our relationship, or of having to hide it? Because we shouldn't have to hide it!"

Nayeon gives him a look. Her hair's black again, and Twice is preparing for another comeback, and the dark circles under her eyes are showing through her concealer. "I don't know," she says so honestly that Brian doesn't know how to respond.

Because there's just some people that you'll always love more than others, some people that make your heart clench when you just catch sight of them. And Brian doesn't know how long it takes for a heart – his heart – to unlearn this kind of behavior.

Because it really ends like this:

 _from brian_  
_> > I don't want to lose you_

_(read)_

 

 

 

 

Q: Okay, how about this: do you think whoever you wrote this song about has heard it?

Young K: At this point, _(laughs)_ definitely.

Q: Then, do you think when they heard it, they knew the song was about them?

Young K: _(pauses for a moment, thinking)_ I honestly don't know. But I'd like to think so. _(exhales, smiles)_ Yeah. I'd like to think so.

 

 

 

 

In a parallel universe, Brian and Nayeon are still in love.

Okay, maybe they don't need a parallel universe for that to be true. But in that parallel universe: they're still together, in love, and happy about it. And maybe Day6 isn't sitting at this awards ceremony in these stuffy suits that only Wonpil looks good in, up for Song of the Year, Sungjin's voice in the bridge playing to the cheers of fans and the general public as they announce the nominees. But they're still making music, and Brian writes a different song about Nayeon, just like he'd promised.

"And the Song of Year Award goes to..." the announcer calls, snapping Brian back into the moment. "Day6!"

"What?" Jae screams, jumping to his feet. Wonpil's covering his face with his hands, probably crying behind them, and Dowoon's trying to rope them all into a hug. Sungjin, still sitting down, is just smiling like he's afraid that if he does anything else, it'll ruin his "Busan man" philosophy.

And Brian stands up, still dazed. He's searching for someone in the crowd, and then, past the rest of the Twice members that are giving them huge thumbs ups and scream-singing "Congratulations," he finds her.

Nayeon's already looking at him, and Brian feels his heart clench. It kind of looks like she's about to cry, something that can easily be passed off as "a label mate so proud and happy for the friends she used to train with." She's still got the most beautiful smile in the world to Brian, her bunny teeth showing, and she's standing up too, clapping.

And maybe some day she'll be smiling like this at someone else, and she'll pledge to spend her life with someone who isn't him, and they'll always think back to the time they spent in love together and remember, "Hey, what if..." But today, today Brian knows this smile is just for him.

 _I am still in love with you,_ his disembodied voice sings through the speakers. Everyone, even Sungjin, is crying now. _I am still in love with you._

Brian mouths along. And then he turns away from Nayeon, and joins his friends onstage.


End file.
